Los Angeles, March 15 (IANS/EFE) Argentine director Juan Diego Solanas, whose visually stunning, $60 million science-fiction romance "Upside Down" is set to premiere in US theaters, said the film was an exhausting "odyssey" whose cost spiralled to double the original budget.

"I find it almost incredible that I survived this odyssey," the director, who has devoted the past seven years of his life to the project, told EFE.

"The film needed at least twice the budget to do it normally. We knew it would be crazy and I'm telling you it was. It was the worst experience of my life. I wouldn't do this again for any reason, not for all the money in the world. But, on the other hand, I'm very proud of the result," the son of acclaimed Argentine filmmaker Fernando "Pino" Solanas added.

"Upside Down" is a French-Canadian fantasy film made without the backing of the big film studios and financed with pre-sales contracts.

Jim Sturgess and Kirsten Dunst play two characters separated by their planet's socio-political structure and, above all, by its dual gravity that pulls them in the direction of their respective worlds.

Creating that alternate universe required a series of visual effects that were overseen by production designer Alex McDowell and based on Solanas' own ideas.